HMNZS Achilles

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Achilles
Namesake	Achilles
Builder	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Laid down	11 June 1931
Launched	1 September 1932
Commissioned	10 October 1933
Out of service	Loaned to Royal New Zealand Navy 1 October 1936
Identification	Pennant number: 70
Honours and awards	River Plate 1939[1]
Fate	Sold to Indian Navy 5 July 1948
New Zealand
Name	HMNZS Achilles
Commissioned	1 October 1941
Decommissioned	17 September 1946
Identification	Pennant number: 70
Honours and awards	Guadalcanal 1942-43, Okinawa 1945[1]
Fate	Returned to Royal Navy 17 September 1946
General characteristics
Class and type	Leander-class light cruiser
Displacement	7,270 tons standard 9,740 tons full load (Oct 1945)
Length	555.5 ft (169.3 m)
Beam	56 ft (17 m)
Draught	19.1 ft (5.8 m)
Installed power	73,280 shaft horsepower (54,640 kW)
Propulsion	Four Parsons geared steam turbines Six Yarrow boilers Four shafts
Speed	32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range	5,730 nmi (10,610 km; 6,590 mi) at 13 kn (24 km/h)
Complement	peacetime 550 wartime 680
Armament	8 × BL 6 in Mk.XXIII (152 mm L/50) guns, twin turrets Mk.XXI 4 × QF 4 in Mk.V (102 mm L/45) guns, single mounts HA Mk.IV 12 × QF 0.5 in Mk.III Vickers (12.7 mm) machine guns, quad mounts Mk.I 8 (2×4) tubes for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo Mk.IX
Armour	3 in magazine box 1 inch deck 1 inch turrets
Aircraft carried	Catapult-launched Fairey Seafox Amphibious Supermarine Walrus Radio controlled DH.82 Queen Bee

HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-class light cruiser, the second of five in the class. She served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War. She was launched in 1931 for the Royal Navy, loaned to New Zealand in 1936 and transferred to the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.^[2]

After Second World War service in the Atlantic and Pacific, she was returned to the Royal Navy. She was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948 and recommissioned as INS Delhi. She was scrapped in 1978.